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THE PRESENT AND FUTURE POINTS OF CENTRALIZATION.

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people who have been led into the place prepared; and, together with his word, hath he also sent or provided the means, whereby his truth may be declared unto others, as well as enjoyed by themselves, so far as is fitting in their present position out of the land, which He gave unto our fathers, and upon which He hath promised yet to build and to plant both the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

The distinguished maritime position, which the Lord's chosen people have been given out of the land, was the best fitted for the time and circumstances. In no other situation that we know, could they have been so well prepared, or could they have acquired such a variety of means, or could they have been so free to use these means, of going forth for the encompassing all nations, for colonizing all the ends of the earth, for sowing the seeds of peaceful industry in every variety of soil, among every people, and under every clime. If there hath been unfaithfulness, it hath been on the part of man, not on the part of the Father of Israel: who, while Ephraim was yet a great way off, hath met and dealt with him as his first-born. And equally faithful as He hath been in the past, will He be in the future unto his promising word. It shall not return unto him void. It will bring back the people after whom it was sent. They will return with it in their hands, their understandings, their hearts, and their mouths. From all the ends of the earth will they return unto that land, which hath been lying desolate without them, to their central inland position; from which branch out the great continents of the old world, together with seas between, whereby maritime communication may still he freely held with the coasts of these continents, north or south; and, as well, with the more newly discovered portions of our globe, in the east and the west. This, with the blessing of the Lord, will be found as eminently fitted for the being a radiating centre, in the tune and circum

stances which are approaching, as has been their present abode in those that are past, for their being sown over the earth—for the depositing their seed in many waters.

God hath been overruling their working: The merchant and manufacturer sought their gain, and the soldier his glory, and the politician aimed after power. Even among those whose service might be expected to be more directly towards the Lord, there have not been a few who have been looking "every man for his gain from his quarter." Many have been seeking to gratify their own whim, or have merely been indulging a restless spirit of adventure: But God hath been overruling it all. His purpose shall stand, and He will do all His pleasure.

This manner of proceeding, however, in which men have been build-` ing for themselves, and planting for themselves, is not that which is to be: a great and important change is to be effected in the motives of men, powerfully influencing their conduct, and resulting in the greatest good to man, and much glory to the Supreme Dispenser of blessing. The rule which Christ taught his disciples, but which hath been so long neglected, is now to be followed, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." They shall seek righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost: and, acknowledging their sins, and the sins of their fathers, for which they were cast out of his inheritance, they shall lay hold upon his strength: He had said they may make peace with Him; yea, He hath said, "They shall make peace with Me." The place of His throne hath long borne the name of Peace in vain; yet there will He command the blessing as at the first; and joy in the Holy Ghost shall abound, so that sorrow and sighing shall flee away. And all those things shall be added which are necessary or good, even for the physical enjoyment of the people of God. When Israel, as Israel, are in the case described—not seeking first the corn,

SEVENTH THUNDER.

THE TIME OF JUDAH'S GREAT SALVATION.

VER. 23-26.

When the Lord shall have mustered his Hosts, and shall fully manifest Himself as the God of Israel, then is the Time when Judah shall bless Jerusalem, as inhabited by Ephraim. In Judah itself there shall be Peace. The wearied Soul, and the Soul that was sorrowful, shall be abundantly refreshed and comforted. Then it is, that those who sleep in Jesus shall awake, and behold the Prophetic Word in full accomplishment.

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EPHRAIM, having been recognised, as in the Fifth Thunder, and having prepared the way for ALL ISRAEL to return, as invited in the Sixth,-now more particularly comes into consideration the case of Judah.

The Lord will restore to Zion her judges as at the first, and her counsellors as at the beginning; after which she is to be called "the City of righteousness, the faithful City;"and this Judah himself will acknowledge. "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, as yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah, and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity, The Lord bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness."

The Lord will have manifested himself to be the Lord of hosts; God will have shown himself to be the God of

Israel, when Judah shall thus acknowledge the purity of the justice administered in Zion, and the truth of the worship celebrated upon the Lord's holy mountain.

Israel shall have been blessed; they shall have been settled after their old estates, and the Lord will have done for them better than at their beginnings; and in all this blessing Judah will at length acquiesce. "And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen." No longer wanderers of the weary foot, they shall have found a peaceful home in their own portion of the land, under the guardianship of the good Shepherd, through rejecting whom they had been cast out of it.He hath been a Shepherd to Israel: He that scattered Israel will then have gathered them, as a shepherd

THE RE-UNION OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH.

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doth his flock. "On the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be."They will have been given to feed on Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old. And now also as to the Jews: "They go forth with the flocks;" and they are all gathered into the one fold, under the one Shepherd; and the Lord will give them pastors like David,-pastors according to his heart, which shall feed them with knowledge and understanding. He will have satiated the soul of the priests with fatness; and his people shall be satisfied with his goodness. The blessing, both temporal and spiritual, will have been bestowed upon them. The promised blessing will have come upon the land, so that the needful corn, and wine, and oil, will not be denied them; and he will have revealed unto them the abundance of goodness and truth.And this sudden and entire change in the land, and upon the people, will, in the sight of all nations, be as a sign that cannot be spoken against.

The resurrection of the dry bones of All Israel, and the change which shall have passed upon Judah, the Remnant of Israel; and the re-union in the land of those that were lost and those that remain, as being now made the Lord's one people, whereby the coming of their King will in power be heralded unto all the ends of the earth, will indeed be a sign-a sign of the speedy resurrection of the saints, who have fallen asleep in Jesus-a sign of the change that shall pass upon those of the Lord's people who shall remain unto the coming of the Lord. These together will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall be ever with the Lord: when the Lord, in the dispensation of the fulness of times, will gather together in one, both the things which are in heaven, and the things which are on earth, even in Him.-In the breaking down the middle wall of partition, which stood between those that were cast afar off, and the remnant left nigh,— in making both one upon earth, He hath given a sign of the union which shall thereafter speedily and visibly

be effected between the earth and the heaven, when the saints, in their glorious dwelling, that shall then descend out of heaven from God, will be given the dominion, under the whole heaven. Is it not as pre-figuring that awaking of the sleeping saints, among whom Jeremiah shall himself be found, with now only gladness in his heart, and praise upon his tongue?-Is it not as foreshadowing the resurrection of the saints that this incident happened to the prophet which is here recorded? "Upon this I awaked, and beheld, and my sleep was sweet unto me." Yea, as truly as Israel will be restored, reflecting as in a glass the coming glory of the Lord, so truly shall the anticipation of all who have fallen asleep in Jesus be realized, “I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness."

The manifestation, in spiritual life, of the sons of the living God, upon Mount Zion, is but the prelude to the manifestation of the sons of God, of every age and of every clime, in the fulness of resurrection life and glory, when they shall be given their dwelling in that well-prepared and longlooked-for city, whose Builder and Maker is God.

In Micah, chap. i., ii., iii., is most strongly portrayed the injustice that inhabited the capitals both of Israel and of Judah; and the utter want of holiness upon that which should have been to the Lord a holy mountain,and the word has been fulfilled, ch. i. 6, "Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field; as plantings of the vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof." And, as to Zion, it is said, ch. iii. 11, "The heads thereof judge for reward; and the priests thereof teach for hire; and the prophets thereof divine for money; yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us?

None evil can come upon us.' And equally has the word been fulfilled upon her: "Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field; and Jerusalem shall become heaps;

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WILL THE LORD CHOOSE JERUSALEM AGAIN?

and the wine, and the oil, the young of the flock, and of the herd, but that God may be honoured in all the earth, and especially in the place of his appointment, then shall all things be added unto them.

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The Lord calls attention to what he here declares; and well may those who have ears to hear, reiterate the call, to Behold" this avowal of the divine purpose. It is a thought which few of the disciples of Christ seem as yet to entertain, that they should be engaged in any such work as that which the Lord hath here described. Many seem to think that the Lord hath so utterly forsaken the place of the soles of his feet, as that he has little or no regard to what may be done there; as that He will no more make it the place of his throne, and the place where He will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever;—As that our King, the son of David, according to the flesh, will not sit upon the throne of his father David, according to the promise. They seem to regard as a command the prediction of our Lord, "The time cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father." That certainly was not a general command with regard to mount Gerizim or Jerusalem. He himself frequented Jerusalem after that saying, even although it cost him his life, and he told his apostles not to depart therefrom, until they were endued with power from on high. Nor were his disciples to desert that city, until they saw it encompassed with armies, and when their numbers could of course only aggravate the horrors of the siege. The words of our Lord as to the cessation of spiritual worship, of the worship of the Father, on his Holy Mountain at Jerusalem, were most certainly not intended to convey a command to those who arc everywhere to lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting. They contained a prediction which has been most literally verified. The Mahommedan worship, which alone is tolerated on the site of the temple at Jerusalem,

most pointedly denies that God is a Father. The Father hath not there been worshipped in any way, neither on Gerizim have men been worshipping Him in spirit and in truth. But is this state of things always to continue? No. The Lord, having found what he hath been so long seeking—a people to worship Him in spirit and in truth, the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the Holy Land, and shall choose Jerusalem again.

There are others who admit that the word of prophecy will be found literally true—that God will at length accomplish his promising word with respect to Jerusalem. But they say that all this will be after the Lord's second advent—that what we regard as the sign of his coming, the preparation of the bride, will not be before the return of the bridegroom—that the place of his feet is not to he preparedthat Jerusalem, whom He will choose again, is not to make herself readythat his people will not, and should not, wait for him at the place appointed that they should rather flee away from Zion than seek to comfort her. But did not the disciples already flee out of Jerusalem? And has not Jerusalem been trodden under foot of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled? And is not the word clear and uniform, that at the end of this long desolation, so soon as the people should come to a knowledge of themselves, and of the occasion of their being cast out among the Gentiles, whilst the vilest of the heathen would be given to dwell in their empty heritages, they should begin to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and to seek her good? Jerusalem is directed to loose herself from the bands of her neck. She is to be instrumental in her own release; Zion is to put on strength; Jerusalem is to put on her beautiful garments, and become "the Holy City," through the being active in her own purification, and glorious preparation for the coming of her Lord. It is of the Lord's power and holiness, that she is to be made pure and glorious It is

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THE CITY TO BE BUILT UNTO THE LORD.

through the redemption which is in his blood, that she is to be lifted up; but still the command is, that she raise herself up: and the Lord's complaint is, that after she hath wrung out the dregs of the cup of trembling, there is none that taketh her by the hand, of all the sons that she hath brought up. But this reproach, upon the many who have been begotten again, by the word which proceeded from Jerusalem, shall not always continue:

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Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers, and they that made thee waste, shall go forth of thee. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see! all they gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee as a bride doth." These, that thus first assemble are not unbelieving Jews, but the believing children of Joseph, clothed with the righteousness of the Redeemer of Israel, the Lord our righteousness.The Lord by Ephraim, as found in Him, will build up the walls of Jerusalem, and gather together the outcasts of Israel. These shall be assembled to that manifestation of those sons of the Living God, which, as the stones of a crown, the preparation for the crowning of the King, shall be lifted up as an ensign upon his land.

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Then shall that be, which evidently has not yet been: but which, as evidently, is to be, upon the very spot the Lord did of old choose. "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord." It is to be built "to the Lord." He has expressed his desire with regard to it; and his people will enter into his desire. It was his desire that a throne should be placed for him in the most holy place in the temple, which was accordingly built unto his glory. It is now his desire that Jerusalem itself should be prepared as a throne for the God of the whole earth; that it should be built for his glory; and then, as truly as He filled the most holy place with his glory, as sitting upon the mercy seat, will He fill the earth with

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his glory, while his visible presence shall abide over Jerusalem, when the new Jerusalem shall descend out of heaven from God.

The Jerusalem upon earth, which man is to build unto the Lord, is sufficiently distinguished from the Jerusalem above, which the Lord Himself hath built. This will come down from heaven, whilst that has to be lifted up, as being built upon her own little hill; the localities of which are given with such particularity, as to prevent any mistake with regard to the place designed. It is to be built "from the tower of Hananeel;" which appears to have been on the northeast corner of the city, " to the gate of the corner" north-westward but it is not to stop there: "the measuring line shall yet go forth over against, upon the hill Gareb," encompassing Goath, which is supposed to be Golgotha, the place where the Lord lay; —where was laid the foundation stone. The stretching out of the city is thus to be westward. And, as to the south side, "the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields, unto the brook Kidron, shall be holy unto the Lord."

It does not seem that men will account any of this portion their own, but the Lord's. It will be for the Lord's service. Unto his glory the city is to be built: for the entertainment of strangers, for the relief of the poor and needy; for the sheltering of the widow and the fatherless; for the centralization of all means, which the Lord hath given, or may give, for doing good unto all as we have opportunity, is this spot to be consecrated unto the Lord. The Lord intends, that on this mountain a feast should be made for all people. And He hath given directions, saying, "When thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind: and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee; but thou shalt be recompensed in the resurrection of the just." This advice remains to be followed; and when it shall be followed by the Lord's people, in and

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